Case Study
Flow Control: Manufacturing Leader Selects Perception Point to Optimize Their Advanced Threat Protection
At a Glance
The Company
Flow Control Group is a leading manufacturing company servicing customers across North America, with ~3,000 employees and rapidly growing as a result of multiple M&As.
Problem
Flow Control Group needed an advanced threat prevention solution to protect the users from modern threats across their email and other collaboration channels; and also be able to easily support their needs for scale and hybrid IT infrastructure due to multiple M&As. With a small in-house SOC team, they were looking for a vendor that would ensure best protection as well as an incident response team that could supercharge the company’s security team.
Perception Point Solutions
Results
- Scanned >800K emails
- Scanned ~2M embedded files & URLs, using its proprietary anti-evasion detection layer
- Detected 195K spam emails & 6K malicious events
Challenge
One of the unique factors about Flow Control Group is that they are constantly acquiring smaller companies to expand and diversify their offerings. What this means for Flow Control Group’s growing IT team is that they must consistently migrate acquired companies into their Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Flow Control needed a security solution that could dynamically scale at the rate of their business with no-fuss deployment and Microsoft 365 compatibility. With the consolidation of so many different domains and IT infrastructures, the customer wanted to ensure 360 coverage by protecting multiple channels.
“Perception Point delivered immediate value at the get-go of the POC. Detection rates were superb, and the fact that the Incident Response service is baked into the solution was a huge benefit. The team proactively contacted us within seconds after catching a serious BEC attack. Because Perception Point’s IR service digs into incidents, really investigating them, our team does not need to invest time and resources to ensure the best protection for the users. I know that the IR team has my back. Perception Point, unlike other vendors we were also in POC with, impressed us almost immediately, it was really a no-brainer for us; the tool just works really really well.”
Grant Walsh, Director of Information Technology – Infrastructure , Operations, & Security, Flow Control
Solution
When Flow Control Group’s security manager came across Perception Point, he was intrigued. The organization was using Microsoft Defender, a tool that was difficult to navigate and laborious to scale. Flow Control Group had already undergone a POC with Avanan, and their experienced security manager was unimpressed with the results. After a quick demonstration of Perception Point’s platform and its capabilities, the customer chose to run a POC through a partner, testing Perception Point, Abnormal and Avanan simultaneously.
While in the POC phase, Flow Control Group leveraged API scanning to scan all messages sent to the domain. Messages were scanned parallel with delivery so as to not disrupt the scanning function of other competitors during the POC. Upon onboarding Perception Point into production, the company changed to “Prevention Mode” which scans all messages pre-delivery and instantly quarantines malicious content before it reaches the user’s inbox.
Due to a successful email security POC, Flow Control Group has decided to deploy Perception Point’s Advanced Browser Security extension to scan all web browser traffic.
During the POC, Perception Point:
- Scanned >800K emails
- Scanned ~2M embedded files & URLs, using its proprietary anti-evasion detection layer
- Detected 195K spam emails & 6K malicious events
File Breakdown:
- PDF files were the most common
- Text files were also highly prevalent
File Type and Rate
- PDF — 66.8%
- Text — 10.5%
- Microsoft Office files — 10.5%
- HTML — 3%
- Media — 2.9%
- Compressed files — 1.7%
- System & Executables — 0.2%
- Other 4.4%
Perception Point’s value was evident from day one, especially in comparison to the other two vendors. Abnormal only shared their data with the customer after two weeks of the trial period, while Avanan went back a month in the client’s system and offered a report of what they would have caught. Perception Point, meanwhile, began intercepting active threats immediately and notifying the customer in real time.
It was the combination of innovative technology and ongoing proactive communication and response that set Perception Point apart from the competition. The initial POC was run in detection mode, which does not quarantine malicious emails and files. Within the first few days, Perception Point Advanced Email Security flagged a BEC attack. The Perception Point Incident Response service notified the customer within 53 seconds, revealing that one of Flow Control’s clients had been compromised.
Summary
For a company like Flow Control Group that is scaling quickly, standardizing their technology and security practices was essential. Flow Control Group needed an advanced all-around security solution that could support their users’ most risky communication and collaboration channels and prevent modern attacks that bypass traditional security systems. With Perception Point’s consolidated solution protecting the customer’s email, browser, and Microsoft 365 suite, Flow Control benefits from simple deployment and holistic management capabilities. The fully-managed and all-included Incident Response service is a game changer for Flow Control Group. The service manages all incidents — investigating and remediating events proactively which gives the security team peace-of-mind, knowing that their email, Microsoft 365 Suite and web browsers are being fully managed by a team of cybersecurity experts.
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